About The Area

Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, Canada

The Township of Muskoka Lakes is an area municipality of the District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. It has a year-round population of 6,707.

History and Government

The area now covered by the township was opened for settlement and organized in 1870 into the following geographic (and sometime municipal) townships of Watt, Cardwell, Humphrey, Christie, Medora and Wood.

In 1971, the current municipal structure took hold when Cardwell Township, Watt Township, Medora and Wood Townships, Bala, Port Carling, Windermere and part of Monck Township were merged.

Geography and Economy

The township is located on Canadian Shield and thus is marked with outcrops of igneous rock and evergreen trees. Although inland from both Lake Huron's Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe, the township contains the Muskoka Lakes consisting of Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau and Lake Joseph, amongst many other smaller lakes.

Timber was initially the greatest economic attraction for the region. The soil is poor and rocky and consequently is not especially suited to agriculture.

As the resource industries dried up, the area soon embraced tourism as its economic base because of its proximity to Toronto and the rest of Southern Ontario. For many Ontarians, this is the centre of cottage country.